The Process of Intellectual Property Policy-Making in the 21st Century-Shifting from a General Welfare Model to a Multi-Dimensional One

摘要

For the sake of simplicity, one can define the concept of IP policy-making as a diverse range of activities, carried out by the qualified bodies in any given country, which influence and shape intellectual property rights (IPRs), in terms of their composition, scope and level of protection.rnThe policy-making of IPRs ultimately deals with a unique commodity-products that are based on knowledge, creativity and other forms of intellectual and artistic creations. And, in contrast to other resources and commodities that are traded globally, knowledge is not scarce. Indeed, one of the most dominant features of knowledge products is that they are generally difficult and costly to create (such as medicines, software or a music record), but once created they can be easily used and copied.